1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic musical instruments, and more particularly to electronic synthesizer instruments in which one or more oscillators is controlled to produce musical sounds of controllable frequency, and incorporating a variety of manual controls provided for modulators, filters, and the like, by which the quality of the sound produced by the instrument may be varied under the control of the operator or player.
2. The Prior Art
Synthesizers in the past have included a variety of programmable or adjustable functions, the variation of which results in changes in the quality of sound produced by the instrument. A difficulty is presented during the playing of such an instrument, however, when the player wishes rapidly to change from one sound quality to another, different sound quality. In the past, the only way that such a shift could be made, if it involved changing more than a very few function parameters, was by the operator adjusting a series of manual controls until the parameters were changed as desired. This is in many cases a relatively time consuming task and requires the attention of the player to each of the function controls, successively, so that it is not ordinarily possible for the player to continue to play the instrument while he is changing the configuration of the controls. Thus, the instrument can be configured to produce radically different sounds, involving the adjustment of several function controls, only at the beginning of a musical composition. Drastic and sudden changes in sound during the playing of a musical composition are not ordinarily possible, because of the need to manipulate the controls one-by-one.
It is therefore desirable to provide a method and apparatus by which these disadvantages might be overcome.